I first became familiar with the music of Olafur Arnalds during the difficult period of my father’s decline and eventual passing. It was last November and Arnalds’ songs from the album For Now I Am Winter drifted from the radio. He is a gifted composer from Mosfellsbaer, Iceland. He began his musical career as a drummer in hardcore/metal and then moved on to electro-pop. He now scores ambient, neo-classical, and electronica that mixes in acoustic instruments that ground and humanize the music. Additional background and a podcast interview can be found here on Echoes.org. His music beckons us in their musical imagery of overcast, twilight days and cold clear nights. Here is one of my favorites from his Living Room Song series from 2011, where he composed a song a week for an entire week form his living room. The entire series can be viewed here. This one is entitled “Near Light.”
Another of my favorites is “This Place Is A Shelter.”
Life, Project Management, and Everything 